1859

Today in History 11/24 (On the Origin of Species)

British Naturalist Charles Darwin, circa 1854 (Messrs. Maull and Fox)(1859) Darwin’s pioneering study on evolution is published
British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes his groundbreaking scientific work that introduces the theory that species gradually evolve via “natural selection” to best survive in their environment. Darwin’s work will have enormous impact on the scientific community, but also in social and religious quarters.
On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin’s book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation.
Author: Charles Darwin
First published: Nov 24, 1859
Number of pages: 502
Genres: Science · Biology · Treatise
Followed by: Fertilisation of Orchids
Original language: English

Photograph of Charles Darwin
Darwin pictured shortly before publication
wiki/On_the_Origin_of_Species
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(1859) Darwin’s pioneering study on evolution is published.
Also on this day,

1963 | Jack Ruby kills accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
Dallas nightclub owner Ruby fires a single shot and mortally wounds Oswald as police move the accused assassin through a basement in front of gathered press and witnesses. The entire incident is captured on live TV. Oswald had been in custody for the murder of President John F. Kennedy two days before.
1971 | ‘D.B. Cooper’ jumps out of plane in a thunderstorm and disappears
Having hijacked a Northwest Airlines flight, ‘D. B. Cooper’ parachutes out of the plane while flying over rural Washington State with $200,000 in ransom. Wearing a suit and raincoat, he jumps at least 10,000 feet into 100 mph winds and freezing temperatures. A massive search will find no trace of Cooper nor reveal his identity.
1991 | Rock star Freddie Mercury dies of AIDS-related pneumonia
Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of popular rock band Queen, dies at 45. The day before he had released a statement saying that he had AIDS, after years of being dogged by rumors about his frail appearance. He called on fans to help join the ‘fight against this terrible disease.’

Today in History 11/24/17

Lee Harvey Oswald reacts as Jack Ruby, foreground, shoots him in a corridor of Dallas police headquarters, November 24, 1963 (Dall© as Times-Herald, Bob Jackson/AP)(1963) Jack Ruby kills accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
Dallas nightclub owner Ruby fires a single shot and mortally wounds Oswald as police move the accused assassin through a basement in front of gathered press and witnesses. The entire incident is captured on live TV. Oswald had been in custody for the murder of President John F. Kennedy two days before.
Jack RubyJack Leon Ruby was the Dallas, Texas nightclub owner who fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, while Oswald was in police custody after being charged with assassinating U.S. President John F. Kennedy and murder of Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit two days earlier. A Dallas jury found him guilty of murdering Oswald, and he was sentenced to death. Ruby's conviction was later appealed, and he was granted a new trial. However, on January 3, 1967, as the date for his new trial was being set, Ruby became ill in his prison cell and died of a pulmonary embolism from lung cancer.
Born: Mar 25, 1911 · Chicago, IL
Died: Jan 03, 1967 · Dallas, TX
Buried: Westlawn Cemetery
Related movies: JFK
Siblings: Marion Rubenstein (Sister) · Earl Rubenstein (Brother) · Eileen Rubenstein (Sister) · Sam Rubenstein (Brother) · Hyman Rubenstein (Brother) · Ann Rubenstein (Sister) · Eva Rubenstein (Sister)
Highlights
  • 1911: Jack Ruby was born Jacob Leon Rubenstein on March 25, 1911 in Chicago as the son of Joseph Rubenstein (1871–1958) and Fannie Turek Rutkowski (or Rokowsky), both Polish-born, Orthodox Jews.

  • 1946: In 1946, Tony Accardo allegedly asked Jack Ruby to go to Texas with Mafia associates Pat Manno and Romie Nappi to make sure that Dallas County Sheriff Steve Gutherie would acquiesce to the Mafia’s expansion into Dallas.

  • 1963: On November 24, 1963, he fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald while the latter was in police custody after being charged with assassinating U.S. President John F. Kennedy two days earlier.

  • 1963: Joe Campisi and his wife visited with Jack Ruby in jail for ten minutes on November 30, 1963.

  • 1966: Eventually, the appellate court agreed with Ruby's lawyers for a new trial, and on October 5, 1966, ruled that his motion for a change of venue before the original trial court should have been granted.

  • 1967: Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism, secondary to bronchogenic carcinoma (lung cancer), on January 3, 1967, at Parkland Hospital, the same facility where Oswald had died and where President Kennedy had been pronounced dead after his assassination.

Ruby about to shoot Oswald who is being escorted by Dallas police detectives Jim Leavelle and L. C. Graves.

wiki/Jack_Ruby
Lee Harvey OswaldLee Harvey Oswald was an American former Marine and Marxist who assassinated United States President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. According to four federal government investigations and one municipal investigation, Oswald shot and killed Kennedy from a sniper's nest as the President traveled by motorcade through Dealey Plaza in the city of Dallas, Texas.
Lived: Oct 18, 1939 - Nov 24, 1963 (age 24)
Height: 5' 9" (1.75 m)
Spouse: Marina Oswald Porter (m. 1961 - 1963)
Children: Audrey Marina Rachel Oswald (Daughter) · June Lee Oswald (Daughter)
Buried: Rose Hill Cemetery
Highlights
  • 1955: As a teenager in 1955, Oswald attended Civil Air Patrol meetings in New Orleans.

  • 1956: In July 1956, Oswald's mother moved the family to Fort Worth, Texas, and Oswald re-enrolled in the 10th grade for the September session at Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth.

  • 1956: Like all Marines, Oswald was trained and tested in shooting and he scored 212 in December 1956, slightly above the requirements for the designation of sharpshooter.

  • 1961: From approximately June 1960 to February 1961, Oswald had a personal relationship with Ella German, a co-worker at the factory.

  • 1961: Lee Harvey Oswald married Marina Oswald Porter on April 30, 1961.

  • 1962: He lived in the Belarusian city of Minsk until June 1962, at which time he returned to the United States with Marina, his Russian-born wife, eventually settling in Dallas.


Lee Harvey Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby as Oswald is being moved by police, 1963

wiki/Lee_Harvey_Oswald
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Today in History 10/16 (John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry)

Fallen trees across a suburban street after the Great Storm in southern England, October 17, 1987 (© John Downing/Getty Images)(1859) An abolitionist attacks an armory at Harpers Ferry
Inspired by his anti-slavery beliefs, and enraged by pro-slavery violence, abolitionist John Brown launches an armed assault on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown and his small band of supporters is no match for the US Marines that will be called out against him.
The Great Storm of 1987 was a violent extratropical cyclone that occurred on the night of 15–16 October, with hurricane-force winds causing casualties in England, France and the Channel Islands as a severe depression in the Bay of Biscay moved northeast. Among the most damaged areas were Greater London, the East Anglian coast, the Home Counties, the west of Brittany and the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy which weathered gusts typically with a return period of 1 in 200 years.
Michael Fish
Michael Fish is resigned to the nation remembering only part of his famous forecast – ‘Hurricane Fish’ still wouldn’t have been predicted today.
wiki/John_Brown’s_raid_on_Harpers_Ferry
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(1859) An abolitionist attacks an armory at Harpers Ferry.
Also on this day,

1916 | Margaret Sanger’s first family planning clinic opens
America’s first family planning clinic opens in Brooklyn, New York, breaking that state’s laws by dispensing birth control and educating patients on contraception. The clinic’s founder, nurse Margaret Sanger, will be arrested nine days later, and become known as a birth control pioneer.
1969 | Major-league upset as ‘Miracle Mets’ stun Baltimore, win World Series
The New York Mets—who had never finished with a winning record and started the season as a 100-1 longshot to win the World Series—complete a dramatic turnaround. The Mets defeat the star-studded Baltimore Orioles in game five at Shea Stadium to win the series.
1987 | Britain hit with devastating, unexpected Great Storm of 1987
Expecting only minor trouble on the south coast, most Britons are shocked when a deadly cyclone packing hurricane-force winds slams into England with gusts as high as 122-mph that uproot trees, tear buildings apart, cause £2 billion of damage, and kill 22.

Today in History 10/16/17

Margaret Sanger poses before leaving Brooklyn Court of Special Sessions after her arraignment in New York in October 1916 (© AP)(1916) Margaret Sanger's first family planning clinic opens
America's first family planning clinic opens in Brooklyn, New York, breaking that state's laws by dispensing birth control and educating patients on contraception. The clinic's founder, nurse Margaret Sanger, will be arrested nine days later, and become known as a birth control pioneer.
Margaret Higgins Sanger was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control", opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Lived: Sep 14, 1879 - Sep 06, 1966 (age 86)
Spouse: James Noah (m. 1922 - 1943) · William Sanger (m. 1902 - 1921)
Founded: Planned Parenthood · American Birth Control League · International Planned Parenthood Federation
Children: Peggy Sanger (Daughter) · Stuart Sanger (Son) · Grant Sanger (Son)
Movies: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed · Birth Control
Siblings: Bob Higgins (Brother) · Ethel Bryne (Sister)
Highlights
  • 1914: In August 1914 Margaret Sanger was indicted for violating postal obscenity laws by sending the The Woman Rebel through the postal system.

  • 1916: On October 16, 1916 Sanger opened a family planning and birth control clinic at 46 Amboy Street in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, the first of its kind in the United States.

  • 1921: After World War I, Sanger shifted away from radical politics, and she founded the American Birth Control League (ABCL) in 1921 to enlarge her base of supporters to include the middle class.

  • 1922: In 1922 she married her second husband, James Noah H. Slee.

  • 1966: In 1966, Planned Parenthood began issuing its Margaret Sanger Awards annually to honor "individuals of distinction in recognition of excellence and leadership in furthering reproductive health and reproductive rights."

  • 1966: Sanger died of congestive heart failure in 1966 in Tucson, Arizona, aged 86, about a year after the U.S. Supreme Court case Griswold v. Connecticut, which legalized birth control in the United States.

MargaretSanger-Underwood
Margaret Sanger (* 1879)
wiki/Margaret_Sanger
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